20 October 2012 - 20 January 2013

Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts

Julian Alden Weir Flora (Carrie Mansfield Weir), 1882 oil on canvas Brigham Young University Museum of Art Purchase/gift of Mahonri M. Young Estate	Robert Walter Weir The Microscope, 1849 oil on canvas Yale University Art Gallery John Hill Morgan, B.A. 1893, L.L.B. 1898, M.A. (Hon.) 1929, and Olive Louise Dann Funds.	John Ferguson Weir Popindrecht, Holland, 1881 oil on canvas Brigham Young University Museum of Art

The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art is the first major exhibition to examine paintings by Robert Walter Weir, and his two sons, John Ferguson Weir and Julian Alden Weir.  In so doing, it traces the trajectory of American art across the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, exploring the wide range of styles in which Robert and his sons worked, as well as the way in which their transatlantic encounters helped to shape their art.  The exhibition is organized by the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, which is a major repository of works by the Weirs as well as personal papers and photographs.  The exhibition brings together over 60 paintings drawn from public and private collections.

Robert Walter Weir, 1803 - 1889 

Robert Weir was one of the first Americans to study art in Italy, from 1824-27.  Upon his return to America he became an associate at the recently-founded National Academy in New York in 1829, and later became an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He was renowned for his talent as a portraitist and as a history painter.

• Biography from the United States Military Academy. 
• Robert Weir's mural Embarkation of the Pilgrims is in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol.
• Robert Weir, along with sons John and Julian, are National Academicians at the National Academy.
• Portrait of Robert Walter Weir by his son Julian Alden Weir at LACMA. 

John Ferguson Weir, 1841 - 1926 

John trained with his father as well as in Europe.  He became the first director of the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1869.  He painted history and genre scenes but was also an adept society portraitist.

• Biography from the Mattatuck Museum.
• John Weir's public sculptures at Yale: Benjamin Silliman, Sr. and Theodore Dwight Woolsey.  The former was John Weir's first attempt to work in three dimensions.
• John Weir's papers from the Yale University Library. 

Julian Alden Weir, 1851 - 1919 

Julian was trained at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1873-77.  Although he originally worked in an academic style, he later embraced the new Impressionism movement and became one of the country's leading Impressionists. 

• Biography from The Phillips Collection.
• Weir Farm National Historic Site.  Julian Weir acquired the farm in Branchville, Connecticut from collector Erwin Davis.  The website includes detailed biographies of Julian Weir, his family, and other artists that have worked at the farm; as well as general information about the farm and art programs. 
• Julian Weir's papers from the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institute.
• Julian Weir, along with John Henry Twachtman, founded the Ten American Painters, or The Ten, which consisted of the most innovative landscape painters of the period.
• Julian Weir exhibited at the controversial Armory Show in 1913.

Selected Titles from The Mint Museum Library

• Eihland, William U., ed. Crosscurrents in American Impressionism at the Turn of the Century. Athens, GA: Athens Museum of Art, 1996.
• Fahlman, Betsy. John Ferguson Weir: The Labor of Art. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997. 
• Neff, Emily Ballew and George T.M. Shackleford. American Painters in the Age of Impressionism. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1994. 
• Owen Gallery. American Impressionism: Exhibition of October 15 - December 15, 1999. New York: Owen Gallery, 1999.
• Pierce, Patricia Jobe. The Ten: Frank W. Benson, Joseph R. DeCamp, Thomas W. Dewing, Childe Hassam, Willard L. Metcalf, Robert Reid, Edward Simmons, Edmund C. Tarbell, John H. Twatchman, J. Alden Weir, and William Merritt Chase (who replaced Twatchman, 1902).  Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1976.
• Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger and David Park Curry. American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915.  New  York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.

The Weir Family, 1820 – 1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art is organized by the Brigham Young University Museum of Art and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Presentation in Charlotte of The Weir Family is generously made possible by McColl Brothers Lockwood and McColl Partners, and the Mint Museum Auxiliary.

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Created by Megan Westmoreland, library intern.